Ever see pictures of a couple and think to yourself, damn they look really cool, I totally want to know them!  Me too!  Meet Lauren & Justin.  No joke, these two are as cool as the other side of the pillow.  A funny anecdote about their role reversal when they met: Both headed to a local bar to watch the Tarheels, Lauren fresh from the gun range, Justin…. fresh from shopping!  Naturally sparks flew and here we are today like the perfect peeping tom scoping out what is most certainly one of my favorite engagement sessions yet!  I asked both Lauren & Justin some questions because, hum….. I think they are really cool and wanna know them ok!?  I dare you not to want to throw down a pint with these two after hearing their inner thoughts & crushing on their style!

Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (1) Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (2) Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (3) Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (4)

Its Saturday morning, the sun is shining and the world is your oyster, what do you and Lauren plot out to do for the day?

Justin: “Lauren and I have slowed down in our old ages of 32 and 27. Haha. Honestly we do like to travel and get away a bit. I would have to say we would probably do something along the lines of sleeping in late, taking a day trip to a location that has a phenomenal local restaurant where we would have dinner, and then coming home later that night to watch a movie. Preferably something slightly scary.”

Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (5)

Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (6) Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (7) Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (8)

What 4 adjectives best describe your relationship with Lauren?

Justin: “Forgiving. Lauren has a great heart at letting stuff go and she is helping me learn to do the same. We have small spats, but within minutes we are over whatever the incident involved and moving on. Creative. She can take just about anything I do and elaborate on it to make it cooler. Refined. Her and I both have old world standard that I feel are slipping away from modern society. Patience. Obviously if she married me she is chocked full of it.”

Lauren: “Humble, we both come from spiritually humbling beginnings and without each other I don’t think our faith would be nearly as strong as it is. We are quick to tell people about our imperfections and how God used those imperfections to bring us together.  Comical, in a good way! We keep each other laughing every single day over the smallest things. I’ve never laughed so long and so hard with someone before.  Forgiving. We hate to fight! When it does happen on the rare occasion it takes us about 10-15 minutes of silence before we calmly but hurriedly tell one another we’re sorry and then we have long discussions about each of our views on whatever subject we fought about. We don’t always come to an agreement but we always find mutual respect for each other’s opinions.  Thoughtful, and vocal about those thoughts! We can turn the most irrelevant topic into an hour long discussion, like why does our dog love everyone and our cat hate everyone? Or why is Nutella the greatest creation of all time? But we also have drawn out study sessions about theology and we jump to grab our Bibles and tablets and build up support of our faith. It doesn’t matter how worn your Bible looks, there is always something new to learn in there and new applications for your daily life. The day we stop challenging ourselves to learn from each other is the day we are ready to go be with our Father in His kingdom.”

Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (9)

Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (10)

Looking back at the images of the engagement session, which is your favorite & why?

Justin: “Cole and Ashley Gorman did such a great job with our shots, but if I had to pick one it would be where we our holding hands, kissing, as the sun is peeking through the woods behind us. It totally captured the feeling on that day. Autumn was in full swing and the weather was just starting to turn something more than brisk. Lauren and I both love the cold weather and the leaves and trees in this shot are dynamite. Plus the picture looks like we are the only two people in a total secluded place. I really dug that, the whole” just you and me in God’s creation” vibe.”

Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (11) Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (12) Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (13)

What was the inspiration behind the engagement session?  Do you guys have special ties to the locations that you shoot at?

Lauren: “The engagement session tied in with our wedding theme, vintage Southern meets English whimsy. The Crunkleton was listed in Garden and Gun’s article about the best bars in the South and is located on an iconic street in my hometown. We met author Daniel Wallace there (Big Fish, The Watermelon King, The Kings and Queens of Roam, etc.) and a young journalism student who asked to videotape an interview of us telling the story of how we met. He posted it online and we still hear from him from time to time as he tells us of recounting our tale to people he’s met around the country. The Last Unicorn is a really cool wonderland of sorts out in the woods on the outskirts of Chapel Hill. It’s a collection of mostly old iron gates and small buildings put together by an old hippie who creates metal sculptures and keeps a writers’ retreat. It’s a collection of things forgotten and we fell in love with it on our first expedition there a few months before. I really want to go back there and style a bridal shoot that centers around the little house made of stained glass windows.”

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Ok the Unicorn truck is out of control!  What are the first 3 things that come to mind when you think of a this noble steed in automotive form?

Justin: “The Last Unicorn in Chapel Hill is one of the most eccentric places I’ve ever been to. The guy who owns it actually drives the truck around town! The first 3 things….I would have to say imagination, to come up the idea. Manly, I mean you have to be to own a vehicle with a unicorn on the hood. And lastly and probably the most important, a good sense of humor.”

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Looking back at the images of the engagement session, which is your favorite & why?

Lauren: “There are two, one is with us standing in front of a log cabin staring down the camera. We’re the redefined American Gothic without the pitchfork. The other is one where the photographer caught the light perfectly when we stopped to grab a quick kiss while walking to the next place in the woods to shoot. Nothing staged, just us.”

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 If you could say one thing to Justin right now, what would it be?

Lauren: “Your new glasses, although a bit hipsterish, look super cute on you! And you should probably massage my feet. And I love you.”

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Vanilla, Chocolate, or Strawberry?

Justin: ” Strawberry! I love the ice-cream and especially the old school Betty Crocker strawberry cake out of the box. I’m simple like that.”

Lauren: “Strawberries dipped in chocolate!”

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Personal style is a gorgeous form of expression, clearly you guys have it in spades, how would you describe your personal style? Lauren’s?

Justin: “My personal style, I would probably have to categorize it as a “classy edgy distinguished hipster”. I don’t stray from the things that work for me. I have a lot of black in my closet, but I always use it to draw attention to another item that I might have on. An example would be either a different color waist coat or like in the engagement photos, a bright pair of TOM shoes.  As for my Lauren, she is way more advance in that department. She wears a lot of risky combinations, but usually sticks to very classic designs. She’s way more up on the year to year fashion trends then I am.”

Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (28) Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (29) Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (30)

In five sentences or less, tell us your funniest Lauren/Justin story to date.

Justin: “We have so many stories about the two of us being silly, but perhaps the sweetest one happened on our wedding day; we both decided to write our own vows and hers were so special. She had this great spill of how we were meant for each other, and how God and ordained this to be so, and then she ended the entire thing with “Thanks for marrying me”. I smiled and knew that it was so heartfelt, but at the same time found it funny. It was a privilege to marry her and she treated the situation as if I were doing her a favor, like passing the salt at the dinner table! I keep her vows in my Bible and pull them out from time to time and it still makes me smile.”

Lauren: “Justin will not be happy about me telling you this one but when we were first dating he came over to my apartment and passed out from exhaustion on my bed while I worked on a research paper at my desk. Minutes later he lost a little pressure if you know what I mean and it woke him up! I think bodily functions are hilarious while he thinks they are disgusting and his confusion over waking up so suddenly endeared him to me in a completely puerile manner. When he asked what had happened I told him he must have had one of those falling dreams and he went back to sleep while I giggled uncontrollably for the rest of the night.”

Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (31)

Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (32) Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (33) Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (34) Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (35) Rustic Outdoor Offbeat Engagement Session The Last Unicorn Chapel Hill North Carolina Blest Photography (36)

Loooving the full tulle skirt doll!  Is this a piece normally in your arsenal or something you got special for the session?

Lauren: “I really felt I wanted (and deserved) a fairy princess moment so I bought it on Etsy (fave website!). I had originally planned to wear it with a red plaid cape that my mother made while attending the University of Michigan in the 70’s. Sort of a retro red riding hood look. When we got to the site however I saw my crocheted skull skirt in the back of the car and paired it with a huge vintage necklace Justin had previously bought me from my favorite antique store and my studded biker boots. I wore the skirt again on our honeymoon at a swanky restaurant.”

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I am completely loving your broken heart ‘Best Friends’ tattoo!  What was the thought process/inspiration behind it and did one of you have to talk the other into it??

 Lauren: “We both knew we didn’t want each other’s named inked on ourselves but we both wanted tattoos that somehow fit together. Justin is the only best friend I’ve ever had and we both wanted to honor that special bond. We are truly the most ridiculously silly people and it’s a relief to have a best friend that shares in your brand of crazy. I think I may have been the one that suggested the idea but I can’t remember. We joke around and tell people it’s our little 1st grade girls’ tattoo.”

Justin: ” We get so many comments on the best friend tattoo! I believe Lauren was the one that came up with the idea; to take the old middle school best friend necklaces that girls used to have and use that as our inspiration. I was on board from the get go. It’s kinda funny how often I get asked who has the other half of the tattoo, like it would be anybody else besides my wife. How weird would it be if the other person was my best friend from 8th grade? Haha.”

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 Tell us about the moment you knew that Justin/Lauren was the one you wanted to spend forever with.

Lauren: “I believe he knew before I did. He likes to tell people he broke me down which is definitely true. I’ve always been hard headed and independent and it wasn’t until I realized that he loved those things about me, and not only that, he supported those things about me that something clicked in me. I had been led to someone that I wanted to take care of and someone who wanted to take care of me.  A giant neon sign in the shape of an arrow lit up inside my head that pointed me towards a man that I knew to be passionate, hard working, and God loving. And he loves stale Cheetos! Perfection!”

Justin: “I have two moments. One that made me ask myself if I could be that lucky and one that confirmed it. The first being that she loved stale cheese doodles. The other was when we had just started dating, she called me to ask me if I wanted to go to a Carolina vs. dook (that’s how we spell Duke in our house) basketball game. I called my Dad as soon as I got off the phone with her. He told me to go ahead a buy the ring.”

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 So is it true?? Do girls really love the curls?

Lauren: “Oh my yes!  I feel that only women and children should be without facial hair.  I want Justin to grow his beard out long enough to braid it like my Viking ancestors. And it’s practical! All the food that gets stuck in there can be saved for snacks! Did I mention our mutual silliness earlier?”

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What is your favorite feature {Physical, emotional, or mental} about Lauren/Justin?

Lauren: “He’s incredibly supportive of me. It’s not that I grew up without support, my single mother did everything possible to provide me with everything I needed while growing up, but the support Justin gives me is something different. He truly believes in me and my opinions. I’ve never been afraid to tell him anything on my mind and it’s unbelievably freeing.”

Justin: “Lauren is the love of my life and I could name many things about her that I fawn over. But if I had to pick just one thing it would be her giving spirit. She finds such great pleasure in being able to give to people whether it be family, friends, or strangers. It’s something I wish came more natural to me. I hope our future kids get that desire from her.”

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Vendor Love

Venue: The Crunkleton, The Last Unicorn | Photographer: Blest Photography